News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-10


in passing that for such miserable and ter
| rifio Heaven l have no admiration. But
| where is the Bih'e passage that says: BE
| / eve in perd ton and lie savedl" Because all
| are going to BE- save according to yOur theory
are you discharged from the duty of loving
| and serving Jesus Christ? Because, accord
| ing to your theory, all the O. hers are going
| ashore do, YOU refuse TO go ashore! Because
| You have different theories about chemistry,
| about ASTRONOMY. about the atmOS Dhere do
| YOU refuse action? Because you have diff
| ferent theory about light, do you refuse to
| open your eyes? Because you have
a different theory about atmosphere, sTio
| YOU refuse to breathe? Because YOU
| system, do you refuse to acknowledge the
| North star? Because you have different
| theory about religion, do you refuse to act?
| If you cannot come in on a ship fashioned in
the theological drydocks, come in on plank
| ''Some on broken DieoeS of the Ship
| l am talking with another man about his
| soul He says: " oh, l don't believe in re-
vivals" Then, my brother, go to your room,
| lock the door and all alone give your heart
| to God and Join me church where the Their
moreter never rises about fifty in the shaded
But l don't believe in baptism Then
come into the Kingdom of God without
| it, and settle that ordinance afterward. "But
there ara so many inconsistent professors of
| religion" Then come in, and by your ex-
ample show what q professor ought to be-
"But | don't believe in the Old Testament"
book of Romans" Come on Matthew
| and Luke Your refusal to come
to Christ, whom you admit to be
| the Savior, because you cannot believe every
thing, makes me think of a man who, out in
the Mediterranean hurricane lust off the
island of Melita, should refuse to go ashore
| until he can get the whole ship fixed up,
until he can make up his mind where all
these loose plauks belong. He says:
Pm going bore when I can get
NIoN ,rll 4ha -ssrt,E I,
keel piece where it belongs, and all these
roDes disentangled and this mast set up
when 1 get everything shipshape then I'd
come ashore. Why, I'm an old sailor for
forty years I know all about a ship. and
when get the ship just right I'll come in
Here is man floating on plank and he
hears it and he says: my friend, you
| will drown out here if you wait til
| you get that ship reconstructed Better do
| as L am doing. l know nothing about
| ship. never saw one till got aboard that
| one. I can't swim stroke, but l am coming
| in on this shvered timber" The man that
| comes in on the plank is saved. The
man who stays out in the Citing to
| mend the old ship is lost. Oh, my
| brother let your smashed up theology
go to the bottom while you cOnae IN on
splintered spar. ''SOme on broken pieces Of
the ship" thlnk-for am not talking on
abstractiOn-there are a thousand men in this
house this morning in Just the mood and
mental condition that | am now sreak-
ing of, and [ have been asked this
last week over and over again about
this and about that and about the other and
| am told every dav of my life almost: " |
can't adopt the whole system of re igion, 1
can't believe all you believe and therefore l
can't become a ChriStian:n so | am speak
ing at a tremendous practicality-let ME
say, my brother, you will probably get
your difficulties settled the way Garibaldi,
the magnetic Italian, got his gardens made
When the war broke out between Austria
on 4 inia hold WIN ct
rera, a rough, unCultured island home. He
went forth with his sword to achieve the lib
Grafton of Sicily and Naples, and he gave
to 100000 of people free govern
two years absence in the war
Garibaldi came ba * to his island home and
as he approached it he found that Victor
Emanuel as matter of surprise had Edenizsd
the whole place. Trimmed shrubbery in
place Of thorny jungle. Beautiful gardens
and terraces in place of barrenness: and in.
stead of the old roOkery where he once
lived there was picturesque mansion where
he passed the rest of his days il
ease and luxury. Oh, my brother, come
under the standard Of our Victor Emanuel
and follow Him through thick and thin, anc |
fight His battles and endure His Sa ;rIic9S, |
and you will find chat your heart has been |
changed from q jungle of thOrny sceptIciSm |
into a garden ablOOm with luXuriant joys |
such as you never dreamed of-from a |
Caprera of sadness and deSOlation into a |
very Paradise of God l do not know how |
your theory went to pieces. Perhaps your |
father and mother started You on a plank, |
they having no religion that amounted to /
much of their own. Or perhaps your parents |
were too severe and rigid ana cracked you |
over the head with psalm book. Perhaps |
you had a business partner who was a |
member of the church and he PLAYED on YOU |
a very mean trick, and ever since you have |
been disguised It'll religion. Perhaps you |
have infidel associat who are every day |
talking ayainst Christianity until you are |
all at sea, and you think more of what |
you do not believe than of what YOU |
do believe. In one respect you are |
like Lord Nelson, who wished in battle to |
disregard a certain signal, and he put hissea
glass to his blind eye and said: 81 don't see
of putting this field glass of the gospel to
your blind eye and saying 81 can't seq
put it to your other eye, the eye
of faith, and you VIII see Christ,
and seeing Him, you see all. Whatever you
believe or do n It believe, you certainly be- |
lieve in vicariOus suffering, for you see it |
every day around you in some shape. Last |
month the steamship Knickerbocker, of the |
Cromwell line, plying between New Orleans |
and here got 10 great storm, and the Cap |
sain saw that the schooner Mary d. Gran |
mer, of Phila teiphia, was going on the rocks; |
50 the chief officer the first flcer of the steam
help the schooner. They cana up near |
where the schooner was and hawSer was |
thrown to the boat the schooner was steared |
away, lowed away from the rocks. Then |
the wind shifted aud the schooner was in
perfect safety. But oh, what a time
those five men had in going to the
steamer. The boat capsized and was
righted. The sailors were all coated with
the ice. Three times the boat ca Dsized aud |
three times was righted. After a while it |
came quite near the amship, aud from
the steamship rope was thrown, but the
poor fellows were 50 frozen and ex-
hausted they could not grasp it, and
a great wave relied over them and |
they went down, never to rise until the sea
gives up it's dead. Oh, we admire the hero
SIN and the self-Sacriice of those brave fell |
lows in order to save the lives of others, and |
can we not admire the love of Christ, WHO |
put out into a fercer gale wilder |
tempest, to deliver US from peril and |
set us on the throne OF eterna |
saFetyt A wave of human hate rolling |
over Him from one side and wave of hell |
Ism fury rolling over HIM from the other |
side. Oh, the thickness OF the night and the |
thunder of the tempest into which Christ |
plunged TO save uS-uS. Come III on that |
narrow plank of the cross. Come in on |
that narrow beam. Let all else 60
Cling to that. Put that under you.
that narrow beam of the cross.
and with the earnestIess Of a swimmer strug-
gllng for his life, put for the baa IA of |
II .aYen A or at warm fire is already
KIND ell to welcome you, anil some who were |
% Astl OuO az Sed as you are, are already |
standing in its genial aad Heavenly glow. |
The angels of Gods rescue are wad ng |
down INTO the surf to clutch your |
hand and the redeemed prodigals OF Heaven |
are coming down with white robes to cIothe |
all those who come Ion broken pieces of the |
ship" Mysympathies are the more aroused |
for those 10 whom am speaking to-day, be- |
cause myself was naturally scepticaI | |
quest1oned everything about this life and |
ABOUT the next life, and | was farther out at |
sea than the 30 passengers on the fourteenth
night when they threw their grain overheard:
and was the annoyance OF my theological |
professor because ASKED 50 many questions
but heard thai Christ ca ne to save sinners,
and knew was one of them, and | came
ashore, and have been there ever since.
and L do not propose to put out on
that sea again. / would not risk it
ALL have not in the last thirty years
spent thirty minutes in discussing |
the coutroverted poin-s of religion, and J
shall not for the rest of my life spend thilN
seconds in discussing the controverteI points /
of religion | would rather in a canOs on